Wednesday, February 17, 2010

The year of the babies

2005 was the year of weddings. Cristina and Stephen Meier had decided to get married a year an a half ealier so that had been planned for awhile, but in December of 2004 Anita met Nick Gamblin on a trip to Champagne, Illinois to Urbana.

You might say,"I thought this was about babies, but there is a natural order of things and you have to give allowance for all the memories of my 60+ mind! Pacience please!

I don't think that Philip knew he would be playing Cupid when he paid Anita's way to the Urbana Conference , but there she met her future husband Nick Gamblin and soon we had two weddings in the making-Anita's in May and Cristina's in July. I remember as I walked down the aisle hanging on to Phili's arm telling Philip, "You had better not get married this year!"


In 2007 Cristina and Stephen thrilled our hearts when they told us they were expecting our first grandchild. I rememeber all the plans that were made to be able to be there for that event.


July 29, 2007 Anita and I met in Atlanta and flew up together to greet Jared, our first grandchild and Anita's first nephew. We arrived hours after Jared's birth and were amazed as we gazed at God's handiwork.


We were initiated into the world of "Aunthood" and "Mimihood" and were delighted to be there.



Did I forget to mention that Philip took me at my word and got married the next year after the girls weddings to Chrissy Dubois, September 7, 2006 and she has quickly become a very loved member of our family? Its hard now to imagine when she wasn't a part!


So it was only a year and some later that we were greeting a new grandson, this time in Quito, Ecuador. "Mimi" arrived 4 days late.. Luke decided to make his appearance a bit early from his known due date, being born January 5th, 2009. This seemed like a good time for Anita to show Nick the land where she had spent 10 years of her life and Philip decided it wasn't a bad idea so he and Chrissy joined the trip. So one week after "Mimi" arrived, Nick and Anita, and Philip and Chrissy arrived to spend a week. We went on sight seeing adventures with Luke in tow.. he as you can see in this picture slept most of the time.



It was then that I began to see the gleam in both of the couples eyes as they held Luke and played with Jared. "I want one of those!" I heard my son in law Nick exclaim that day.




So it wasn't surprising when Anita and Nick half way into 2009 called us in Guatemala to tell us that a little "Gambino" was on the way. Automatically I began to prepare myself mentally for a trip up north to receive this third grandchild.However when 6 weeks later our son Philip suggested we get on SKYPE so we could talk "better" I was really surprised when they showed us a Ultrasound of their child. Anita and Chrissy had joked in Quito that they would both get pregnant the same time. So now my mind adjusted to the fact I would spend some time with Anita in February and then in March 6 or around that time I would move over to Philip and Chrissy's house and help with their baby.

It wasn't long that I was hearing that Nick and Anita were expecting a boy and then weeks later we found out that the next Cobb would be a boy as well. Then Josh decided to come 3 months and a week early and all the plans took a different turn.

As I said before in the blog about Joshua we have been kept in the loop from Guatemala through the wonderful blogs my son Philip and our daughter "in love" have written and we have been amazed and grateful at all the Lord has done in the NICU where Josh spent so many days. We are grateful now that he is home and adjusting to just being a normal little boy.

Well January rolled around and I was anxious as I made my plans to fly up the 25th of January that this grandson might not wait for me. The other three had come before their due dates.. so I held my breath those last few days in Guatemala. It turns out that I had nothing to fear as we sailed past the due date the 29th with no action.

So February 1 Anita was experiencing some feelings of being lightheaded so we headed to Anita's doctor's office. We really thought we would probably return to wait it out.. because even though Anita was having contractions they weren't regular ones.

However as the doctor checked Anita, she accidentally snagged Anita's sac and so we just went directly down to the third floor maternity ward and so began the long saga till we had a baby. Nick got off work and came as soon as he could. Who can say totally what you experience when you go through having a baby? I was happy to be allowed to be with Nick and Anita, more as a voice of encouragement, because Nick and Anita did all the work. Labor, as it does many times in first births progressed slowly, and in the late afternoon they were administering "pitocin" since after the water breaks you have to have the baby out in 24 hours. By 4 the next morning Anita was exhausted as well as not able to handle the strong contractions as quickly as they came so we all felt good with her getting an epidural. Having done that we all went to sleep for and hour and a half and when we woke up Anita had progressed to 9 centimenters.

Philip our son arrived early on before Anita started pushing and brought us a sandwich from Panera and some coffee ( to me and Nick, Anita getting ready to go into the pushing mode could not eat). We were ever so grateful for that refreshment since it had been a long night..

So soon at 9 the pushing began.. it seemed like an eternity, when all told it was really only 45 minutes. Immediately we could see Noah's head.. his hair poking through and we began to encourage Anita as she pushed. What a priviledge as a "Mimi" to get to see my grandson be born! I found myself getting lightheaded as I held my breath with every push. At 9:45 Anita was pushing that baby out and he was born minutes later. You can see the proud papa standing next to the doctor that delivered Noah and a Nurse.


On the right you can see the proud but tired mama and her baby.







I can't express the wonder of seeing another life born into the world. Noah came out eyes open, checking out everything around him. He was a whopping 8lbs 7 ounces, with a head circumference of 14". No wonder his mama had such a hard time getting him out!

So these past few weeks have been spent getting to know this new person who has fast become an important part of the Gamblin family as well as the Cobb clan. Sometimes as he looks around he is like a little camera snapping pictures of all the new things to see.

This "Mimi" has had a hard time separating both new grandsons in her mind, so Noah has been called Josh a lot and Josh has also had his name changed to Noah. The inside family joke around here is I might as well call them both Jonah since it is somewhere in between the two of the names!

A scripture has become fresh to me in the past few years, "Oh God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do.
"Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, o God.
Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. (Psalms 71:17-18)

Steve and I look forward to proclaiming His power every time we get the chance to this new generation that is in the making!